Dissolved in ease and soft delights they lie,Till every sun annoys, and every windHas chilling force, and every rain offends.Dyer,Ruins of Rome.
Dissolved in ease and soft delights they lie,Till every sun annoys, and every windHas chilling force, and every rain offends.Dyer,Ruins of Rome.
Sybariswas a town of Lucania, situated on the banks of the Bay of Tarentum. It was founded by a colony of Achaians; and in process of time became very powerful.
The walls of this city extend six miles and a half in circumference, and the suburbs covered the banks of the Crathis for seven miles.
Historians and orators, of all ages, have been guilty of praising heroes. “For my own part,” says Mr. Swinburne, “I cannot help feeling pity for the hard fate of the Sybarites, to whom we are indebted for the discovery of many most useful pieces of chamber and kitchen furniture. They appear to have been a people of great taste, and to have set the fashion, in point of dress, throughout all Greece. Their cooks, embroiderers,and confectioners, were famous over all the polite world; and we may suppose their riding-masters did not enjoy a less brilliant reputation, since we are told of their having taught their horses to dance to a particular tune. The public voice, however, of all ages, has been against them. Sybaris255was ten leagues from Croton. Four neighbouring states, and twenty-five cities, were subject to it; so that it was alone able to raise an army of three hundred thousand men. The opulence of Sybaris was soon followed by luxury, and such a dissoluteness as is scarcely possible. The citizens employed themselves in nothing but banquets, games, shows, parties of pleasure, and carnivals. Public rewards and marks of distinction were bestowed on those who gave the most magnificent entertainments; and even to such cooks as were best skilled in the important art of making new refinements to tickle the palate. The Sybarites carried their delicacy and effeminacy to such a height, that they carefully removed from their city all such artificers whose work was noisy; and would not suffer any cocks in it, lest their shrill, piercing crow should disturb their slumbers.”
All these evils were heightened by dissension and discord, which at last proved their ruin. Five hundred of the wealthiest in the city having been expelled by the faction of one Telys, fled to Croton. Telys demanded to have them surrendered to him; and, on the refusal of the Crotonians to deliver them up, prompted to this generous resolution by Pythagoras, who then lived among them, war was declared. The Crotonians were headed by Milo, the famous champion; over whose shoulders a lion’s skin was thrown, and himself armed with a club, like another Hercules. The latter gained a complete victory, and made a dreadfulhavoc of those who fled, so that very few escaped; and Sybaris was depopulated.
About sixty years after this some Thessalians came and settled in it; however, they did not long enjoy peace, being driven out by the Crotonians. Being thus reduced to the most fatal extremity, they implored the succour of the Lacedæmonians and Athenians. The latter, moved to compassion at their deplorable condition, after causing proclamation to be made in Peloponnesus, that all who were willing to assist that colony were at liberty to do it, sent the Sybarites a fleet of ten ships, under the command of Lampon and Xenocrates. They built a city near the ancient Sybaris, and called it Thurium.
Two men, greatly renowned for their learning, the one an orator, and the other an historian, settled in this colony. The first was Lysias, at that time but fifteen years of age. He lived in Thurium, till that ill fate which befel the Athenians in Sicily, and then went to Athens.
The second was Herodotus. Though he was born in Halicarnassus, a city of Caria, he was considered as a native of Thurium, because he settled there with that colony. Divisions soon broke out in the city, on occasion of the new inhabitants, whom the rest would exclude from all public employments and privileges. But as these were much more numerous, they repulsed all the ancient Sybarites, and got the sole possession of the city. Being supported by the alliance they made with the people of Croton, they grew very powerful; and, having settled a popular form of government in their city, they divided the citizens into ten tribes, which they called by the names of the different nations whence they sprang.
Sybaris was destroyed five times; but had always the good fortune to be restored. It at length, however,fell into irredeemable decay; and, no doubt, justly, for every excess256, whether of luxury or voluptuousness, could be found there. The indolence of the inhabitants was so great, that they boasted that they never saw the sun either rise or set. The greatest encouragement was liberally lavished on such as invented new pleasures; and, as a natural consequence, though the city enjoyed a long period of prosperity, not a single citizen’s name has been preserved to posterity, who is entitled to admiration, either for deeds of heroism, or the practice of milder virtues in private life.
There is, nevertheless, one anecdote recorded in their favour. Being enslaved by the Lucanians, and afterwards subjected to the Romans, they still retained a fond attachment to the manners of Greece; and are said to have displayed their partiality to their mother-country, in a manner that evinces both their taste and their feeling. Being compelled by the will of the conquerors, or by other circumstances, to adopt a foreign language and foreign manners, they were accustomed to assemble annually, on one of the great festivals of Greece, in order to revive the memory of their Grecian origin, to speak their primitive language, and to deplore, with tears and lamentations, their sad degradation. It would afford peculiar pleasure to discover some monument of a people of so much sensibility, and of such persevering patriotism.
Seventy days sufficed to destroy all their grandeur! Five hundred and seventy-two years before the Christian era, the Crotoniates, under the famous athlete Milo, as we have already related, defeated the Sybarites in a pitched battle, broke down the dams of the Crathis, and let the furious stream intothe town, where it soon overturned and swept away every building of use and ornament. The inhabitants were massacred without mercy; and the few that escaped the slaughter, and attempted to restore their city, were cut to pieces by a colony of Athenians, who afterwards removed to some distance, and founded Thurium.
“Many ages, alas!” continues Mr. Swinburne, “have now revolved since man inhabited these plains in sufficient numbers to secure salubrity. The rivers have long rolled lawless over these low, desolated fields; leaving, as they shrink back to their beds, black pools and nauseous swamps, to poison the whole region, and drive mankind still farther from its ancient possessions. Nothing in reality remains of Sybaris, which once gave law to nations, and could muster even so large a force as 300,000 fighting men. Not one stone remains upon another257!”
Thiswas a town in the Thebais, nearly under the tropic of Cancer; greatly celebrated for the first attempt to ascertain the measure of the circumference of the earth by Eratosthenes, who, about the year 276A. C., was invited from Athens to Alexandria, by Ptolemy Evergetes.
Juvenal, the poet, was banished there, on the pretence of commanding a cohort, stationed in the neighbourhood.
Its principal antiquities are a small temple, supposed to be the remains of Eratosthenes’ observatory, the remains of a Roman bridge, and the ruins of the Saracen town. The latter includes the city wall, built of unburnt bricks, and defended by square towers, and several mosques with lofty minarets, and many large houses in a state of wonderful preservation,still entire, though resting on very frail foundations.
“Syene, which, under so many different masters,” says a celebrated French geographer, “has been the southern frontier of Egypt, presents in a greater degree than any other spot on the surface of the globe, that confused mixture of monuments, which, even in the destinies of the most potent monarchs, reminds us of human instability. Here the Pharaohs, and the Ptolemies, raised the temple, and the palaces which are found half buried under the drifting sand. Here are forts and villas built by the Romans and Arabians; and on the remains of all these buildings French inscriptions are found, attesting that the warriors, and the learned men of modern Europe, pitched their tents, and erected their observatories on this spot. But the eternal power of nature presents a still more magnificent spectacle. Here are the terraces of reddish granite, of a particular character, hence called syenite,—a term applied to those rocks, which differ from granite in containing particles of hornblende. These mighty terraces, are shaped into peaks, across the bed of the Nile, and over them the river rolls majestically its impetuous foaming waves. Here are the quarries from which the obelisks and colossal statues of the Egyptian temples were dug. An obelisk, partially formed and still remaining attached to the native rock, bears testimony to the labours and patient efforts of human art. On the polished surfaces of these rocks, hieroglyphic sculptures represent the Egyptian deities, together with the sacrifices and offerings of this nation; which, more than any other, has identified itself with the country which it inhabited, and has, in the most literal sense, engraved the records of its glory on the terrestrial globe”258.
“Thefame of states, now no longer existing, lives,” says Mr. Swinburne, “in books or tradition; and we reverence their memory in proportion to the wisdom of their laws, the private virtues of their citizens, the policy and courage with which they defended their own dominions, or advanced their victorious standards into those of their enemies. Some nations have rendered their names illustrious, though their virtues and valour had but a very confined sphere to move in; while other commonwealths and monarchies have subdued worlds, and roamed over whole continents in search of glory and power. Syracuse must be numbered in the former class, and amongst the most distinguished of that class. In public and private wealth, magnificence of buildings, military renown, and excellence in all arts and sciences, it ranks higher than most nations of antiquity. The great names recorded in its annals still command our veneration; though the trophies of their victories, and the monuments of their skill, have long been swept away by the hand of time.”
Syracuse is a city, the history of which is so remarkably interesting to all those who love liberty, that we shall preface our account of its ruins by adopting some highly important remarks afforded us by that celebrated and amiable writer to whose learning and genius we have been so greatly indebted throughout the whole of this work:—(Rollin). “Syracuse,” says he, “appears like a theatre, on which many surprising scenes have been exhibited; or rather like a sea, sometimes calm and untroubled, but oftener violently agitated by winds and storms, always ready to overwhelm it entirely. We have seen, in no other republic, such sudden, frequent,violent, and various revolutions: sometimes enslaved by the most cruel tyrants; at others, under the government of the wisest kings: sometimes abandoned to the capricious will of a populace, without either government or restriction; sometimes perfectly docile and submissive to the authority of law and the empire of reason; it passed alternately from the most insupportable slavery to the most grateful liberty; from convulsions and frantic emotions, to a wise, peaceable, and regular conduct. To what are such opposite extremes and vicissitudes to be attributed? Undoubtedly, I think, the levity and inconstancy of the Syracusans, which was their distinguishing characteristic, had a great share in them; but what I am convinced conduced the most to them, was the very form of their government, compounded of the aristocratic and democratic; that is to say, divided between the senate or elders, and the people. As there was no counterpoise in Syracuse to support a right balance between those two bodies, when authority inclined either to the one side or the other, the government presently changed, either into a violent and cruel tyranny, or an unbridled liberty, without order or regulation. The sudden confusion, at such times, of all orders of the state, made the way to the sovereign power easy to the most ambitious of the citizens. To attract the affection of their country, and soften the yoke to their fellow-citizens, some exercised that power with lenity, wisdom, equity, and popular behaviour; and others, by nature less virtuously inclined, carried it to the last excess of the most absolute and cruel despotism, under pretext of supporting themselves against the attempts of their citizens, who, jealous of their liberty, thought every means for the recovery of it legitimate and laudable. There were,besides, other reasons that rendered the government of Syracuse difficult, and thereby made way for the frequent changes it underwent. That city did not forget the signal victories it had obtained against the formidable power of Africa, and that it had carried its victorious arms and terror even to the walls of Carthage. Besides which, riches, the natural effect of commerce, had rendered the Syracusans proud, haughty, and imperious, and at the same time had plunged them into a sloth and luxury, that inspired them with a disgust for all fatigue and application. They abandoned themselves blindly to their orators, who had acquired an absolute ascendant over them. In order to make them obey, it was necessary either to flatter or reproach them. They had naturally a fund of equity, humanity, and good nature; and yet, when influenced by the seditious discourses of the orators, they would proceed to excessive violence and cruelties, which they immediately after repented. When they were left to themselves, their liberty, which at that time knew no bounds, soon degenerated into caprice, fury, violence, and even frenzy. On the contrary, when they were subjected to the yoke, they became base, timorous, submissive, and creeping like slaves. With a small attention to the whole series of the history of the Syracusans, it may easily be perceived, as Galba afterwards said of the Romans, that they were equally incapable of bearing either entire liberty or entire servitude; so that the ability and policy of those, who governed them, consisted in keeping the people to a wise medium between those two extremes, by seeming to leave them an entire freedom in their resolutions, and reserving only to themselves the care of explaining the utility, and facilitating the execution, of good measures. And in this some of its magistrates and kings were wonderfully successful;under whose government the Syracusans always enjoyed peace and tranquillity, were obedient to their princes, and perfectly submissive to the laws. And this induces one to conclude, that the revolutions of Syracuse were less the effect of the people’s levity, than the fault of those that governed them, who had not the art of managing their passions, and engaging their affection, which is properly the science of kings, and of all who command others.”
Syracuse was founded about seven hundred and thirty-two years before the Christian era, by a Corinthian named Archias; one of the Heraclidæ.
The two first ages of its history are very obscure; it does not begin to be known till after the age of Gelon, and furnishes in the sequel many great events for the space of more than two hundred years. During all that time it exhibits a perpetual alternation of slavery under the tyrants, and liberty under a popular government, till Syracuse is at length subjected to the Romans, and makes part of their empire.
The Carthaginians, in concert with Xerxes, having attacked the Greeks who inhabited Sicily, whilst that prince was employed in making an irruption into Greece, Gelon, who had made himself master of Syracuse, obtained a celebrated victory over the Carthaginians, the very day of the battle of Thermopylæ.
Gelon, upon returning from his victory, repaired to the assembly without arms or guards, to give the people an account of his conduct. He was chosen king unanimously. He reigned five or six years, solely employed in the truly royal care of making his people happy.
Gelon is said to have been the first man who becamemore virtuous by being raised to a throne. He was eminent for honesty, truth, and sincerity; he never wronged the meanest of his subjects, and never promised a thing which he did not perform.
Hiero, the eldest of Gelon’s brothers, succeeded him. The beginning of his reign was worthy of great praise. Simonides and Pindar celebrated him in emulation of each other. The latter part of it, however, did not answer the former. He reigned eleven years.
Thrasybulus, his brother, succeeded him. He rendered himself odious to all his subjects, by his vices and cruelty. They expelled him the throne and city, after a reign of one year.
After his expulsion, Syracuse and all Sicily enjoyed their liberty for the space of almost sixty years.
During this interval, the Athenians, animated by the warm exhortations of Alcibiades, turned their arms against Syracuse; this was in the sixth year of the Peloponnesian war. This event was fatal to the Athenians.
The reign of Dionysius the Elder is famous for its length of thirty-eight years, and still more for the extraordinary events with which it was attended.
Dionysius, son of the elder Dionysius, succeeded him. He contracted a particular intimacy with Plato, and had frequent conversations with him. He did not long improve from the wise precepts of that philosopher, but soon abandoned himself to all the vices and excesses which attend tyranny.
Besieged by Dion, he escaped from Sicily, and retired into Italy, where he was assassinated in his house by Callippus.
Thirteen months after the death of Dion, Hipparinus, brother of Dionysius the Younger, expelledCallippus, and established himself in Syracuse. During the two years of his reign, Sicily was agitated by great commotions.
Dionysius the Younger, taking advantage of these troubles, reascends the throne ten years after having quitted it. At last, reduced by Timoleon, he retires to Corinth. Here he preserved some semblance of his former tyranny, by turning schoolmaster, and exercising a discipline over boys, when he could no longer tyrannise over men. He had learning, and was once a scholar to Plato, whom he caused to come again into Sicily, notwithstanding the unworthy treatment he had met with from Dionysius’s father. Philip, king of Macedon, meeting him in the streets of Corinth, and asking him how he came to lose so considerable a principality as had been left him by his father, he answered, that his father had indeed left him the inheritance, but not the fortune which had preserved both himself and that; however, Fortune did him no great injury, in replacing him on the dunghill, from which she had raised his father.
Timoleon restored liberty to Syracuse. He passed the rest of his life there in a glorious retirement, beloved and honoured by all the citizens and strangers.
This interval of liberty was of no long duration. Agathocles, in a short time, makes himself tyrant of Syracuse. He commits unparalleled cruelties. He forms one of the boldest designs related in history, carries the war into Africa, makes himself master of the strongest places, and ravages the whole country. After various events, he perishes miserably, after a reign of about twenty-eight years259.
Syracuse took new life again for some time, and tasted with joy the sweets of liberty. But she suffered much from the Carthaginians, who disturbed her tranquillity by continual wars. She called in Pyrrhus to her aid. The rapid success of his arms at first gave him great hopes, which soon vanished. Pyrrhus, by a sudden retreat, plunged the Syracusans into new misfortunes. They were not happy and in tranquillity till the reign of Hiero II., which was very long, and almost always pacific.
Hieronymus scarce reigned one year. His death was followed with great troubles, and the taking of Syracuse by Marcellus.
Of this celebrated siege, since it was the ruin of Syracuse, it is our duty to give some account.
“The Romans carrying on their attacks at two different places, Syracuse was in great consternation, and apprehended that nothing could oppose so terrible a power, and such mighty efforts; and it had indeed been impossible to have resisted them, without the assistance of a single man, whose wonderful industry was every thing to the Syracusans—this was Archimedes. He had taken care to supply the walls with all things necessary to a good defence. As soon as his machines began to play on the land-side, they discharged upon the infantry all sorts of darts, and stones of enormous weight, which flew with so much noise, force, and rapidity, that nothing could oppose their shock. They beat down and dashed to pieces all before them.
“Marcellus succeeded no better on the side of the sea. Archimedes had disposed his machines in such a manner as to throw darts to any distance. Though the enemy lay far from the city, he reached them with his larger and more forcible balistæ and catapultæ. When they overshot their mark, he had smaller, proportioned to the distance, which put the Romansinto such confusion as made them incapable of attempting any thing.
“This was not the greatest danger. Archimedes had placed lofty and strong machines behind the walls, which suddenly letting fall vast beams, with an immense weight at the end of them, upon the ships, sunk them to the bottom. Besides this, he caused an iron grapple to be let out by a chain; the person who guided the machine having caught hold of the head of a ship with this hook, by the means of a weight let down within the walls, it was lifted up and set upon its stern, and held so for some time; then, by letting go the chain either by a wheel or a pulley, it was let fall again with its whole weight either on its head or side, and often entirely sunk. At other times the machines dragging the ship towards the shore by cords and hooks, after having made it whirl about a great while, dashed it to pieces against the points of the rocks which projected under the walls, and thereby destroyed all within it. Galleys, frequently seized and suspended in the air, were whirled about with rapidity, exhibiting a dreadful sight to the spectators; after which they were let fall into the sea, and sunk to the bottom, with all that were in them.
“Marcellus, almost discouraged, and at a loss what to do, retired as fast as possible with his galleys, and sent orders to his land forces to do the same. He called also a council of war, in which it was resolved the next day, before sun-rise, to endeavour to approach the walls. They were in hopes by this means to shelter themselves from the machines, which, for want of a distance proportioned to their force, would be rendered ineffectual.
“But Archimedes had provided against all contingencies. He had prepared machines long before, as we have already observed, that carried to all distances a proportionate quantity of darts, and ends of beams, which being very short, required less time for preparing them, and in consequence were more frequently discharged. He had besides made small chasms or loop-holes in the walls at little distances, where he had placed scorpions, which, not carrying far, wounded those who approached, without being perceived but by that effect.
“When the Romans, according to their design, had gained the foot of the walls, and thought themselves well covered, they found themselves exposed either to an infinity of darts, or overwhelmed with stones, which fell directly upon their heads; there being no part of the wall which did not continually pour that mortal hail upon them. This obliged them to retire. But they were no sooner removed than a new discharge of darts overtook them in their retreat; so that they lost great numbersof men, and almost all their galleys were disabled or beat to pieces, without being able to revenge their loss in the least upon their enemies: for Archimedes had planted most of his machines in security behind the walls; and the Romans, says Plutarch, repulsed by an infinity of wounds, without seeing the place or hand from which they came, seemed to fight in reality with the gods.
“Marcellus, though at a loss what to do, and not knowing how to oppose the machines of Archimedes, could not, however, forbear pleasantries upon them. ‘Shall we persist,’ said he to his workmen and engineers, ‘in making war with this Briareus of a geometrician, who treats my galleys and sambucæ so rudely? He infinitely exceeds the fabled giants with their hundred hands, in his perpetual and surprising discharges upon us.’ Marcellus had reason for referring to Archimedes only; for the Syracusans were really no more than the members of the engines and machines of that great geometrician, who was himself the soul of all their powers and operations. All other arms were unemployed; for the city at that time made use of none, either defensive or offensive, but those of Archimedes.
“Marcellus at length renounced his hopes of being able to make a breach in the place, gave over his attacks, and turned the siege into a blockade. The Romans conceived they had no other resource than to reduce the great number of people in the city by famine, in cutting off all provisions that might be brought to them either by sea or land. During the eight months in which they besieged the city, there were no kind of stratagems which they did not invent, nor any actions of valour left untried, almost to the assault, which they never dared to attempt more. So much force, on some occasions, have a single man, and a single science, when rightly applied.
“A burning glass is spoken of, by means of which Archimedes is said to have burned part of the Roman fleet.
“In the beginning of the third campaign, Marcellus almost absolutely despairing of being able to take Syracuse, either by force, because Archimedes continually opposed him with invincible obstacles, or famine, as the Carthaginian fleet, which was returned more numerous than before, easily threw in convoys, deliberated whether he should continue before Syracuse to push the siege, or turn his endeavours against Agrigentum. But before he came to a final determination, he thought proper to try whether he could make himself master of Syracuse by some secret intelligence.
“This, too, having miscarried, Marcellus found himself in new difficulties. Nothing employed his thoughts but the shame of raising a siege, after having consumed so much time, andsustained the loss of so many men and ships in it. An accident supplied him with a resource, and gave new life to his hopes. Some Roman vessels had taken one Damippus, whom Epicydes had sent to negociate with Philip king of Macedon. The Syracusans expressed a great desire to ransom this man, and Marcellus was not averse to it. A place near the port Trogilus was agreed on for the conferences concerning the ransom of the prisoner. As the deputies went thither several times, it came into a Roman soldier’s thoughts to consider the wall with attention. After having counted the stones, and examined with his eye the measure of each of them, upon a calculation of the height of the wall, he found it to be much lower than it was believed, and concluded, that with ladders of a moderate size it might be easily scaled. Without loss of time he related the whole to Marcellus. Marcellus did not neglect this advice, and assured himself of its reality with his own eyes. Having caused ladders to be prepared, he took the opportunity of a festival that the Syracusans celebrated for three days in honour of Diana, during which the inhabitants gave themselves up entirely to rejoicing and good cheer. At the time of night when he conceived that the Syracusans, after their debauch, began to fall asleep, he made a thousand chosen troops, in profound silence, advance with their ladders to the wall. When the first got to the top without noise or tumult, the others followed, encouraged by the boldness and success of their leaders. These thousand soldiers, taking the advantage of the enemy’s stillness, who were either drunk or asleep, soon scaled the wall.
“It was then no longer time to deceive, but terrify the enemy. The Syracusans, awakened by the noise, began to rouse, and to prepare for action. Marcellus made all his trumpets sound together, which so alarmed them, that all the inhabitants fled, believing every quarter of the city in the possession of the enemy. The strongest and best part, however, called Achradina, was not yet taken, because separated by its walls from the rest of the city.
“All the captains and officers with Marcellus congratulated him upon this extraordinary success. For himself, when he had considered from an eminence the loftiness, beauty, and extent of that city, he is said to have shed tears, and to have deplored the unhappy condition it was upon the point of experiencing.
“As it was then autumn, there happened a plague, which killed great numbers in the city, and still more in the Roman and Carthaginian camps. The distemper was not excessive at first, and proceeded only from the bad air and season; butafterwards the communication with the infected, and even the care taken of them, dispersed the contagion; from whence it happened that some, neglected and absolutely abandoned, died of the violence of the malady, and others received help, which became fatal to those who brought it. Nothing was heard night and day but groans and lamentations. At length, the being accustomed to the evil had hardened their hearts to such a degree, and so far extinguished all sense of compassion in them, that they not only ceased to grieve for the dead, but left them without interment. Nothing was to be seen every where but dead bodies, exposed to the view of those who expected the same fate. The Carthaginians suffered much more from it than the others. As they had no place to retire to, they almost all perished, with their generals Hippocrates and Himilcon. Marcellus, from the breaking out of the disease, had brought his soldiers into the city, where the roofs and shade was of great relief to them; he lost, however, no inconsiderable number of men.
“Amongst those, who commanded in Syracuse, there was a Spaniard named Mericus: him a means was found to corrupt. He gave up the gate near the fountain Arethusa to soldiers sent by Marcellus in the night to take possession of it. At day-break the next morning, Marcellus made a false attack at Achradina, to draw all the forces of the citadel and the isle adjoining to it, to that side, and to facilitate the throwing some troops into the isle, which would be unguarded, by some vessels he had prepared. Every thing succeeded according to his plan. The soldiers, whom those vessels had landed in the isle, finding almost all the posts abandoned, and the gates by which the garrison of the citadel had marched out against Marcellus still open, they took possession of them after a slight encounter.
“The Syracusans opened all their gates to Marcellus, and sent deputies to him with instructions to demand nothing further from him than the preservation of the lives of themselves and their children. Marcellus having assembled his council, and some Syracusans who were in his camp, gave his answer to the deputies in their presence:—‘That Hiero, for fifty years, had not done the Roman people more good than those who have been masters of Syracuse some years past had intended to do them harm; but that their ill-will had fallen upon their own heads, and they had punished themselves for their violation of treaties in a more severe manner than the Romans could have desired. That he had besieged Syracuse during three years; not that the Roman people might reduce it into slavery, but to prevent the chiefs of the revolters fromcontinuing it under oppression. That he had undergone many fatigues and dangers in so long a siege, but that he thought he had made himself ample amends by the glory of having taken that city, and the satisfaction of having saved it from the entire ruin it seemed to deserve.’ After having placed a guard upon the treasury, and safe-guards in the houses of the Syracusans, who had withdrawn into his camp, he abandoned the city to be plundered by the troops. It is reported that the riches which were pillaged in Syracuse at this time exceeded all that could have been expected at the taking of Carthage itself.”
The chronicles of Syracuse260commemorate endless and bitter dissentions among the several ranks of citizens, the destruction of liberty by tyrants, their expulsion and re-establishment, victories over the Carthaginians, and many noble struggles to vindicate the rights of mankind; till the fatal hour arrived, when the Roman leviathan swallowed all up. Inglorious peace and insignificance were afterwards, for many ages, the lot of Syracuse; and, probably, the situation was an eligible one, except in times of such governors as Verres. At length, Rome herself fell in her turn, a prey to conquest, and barbarians divided her ample spoils. The Vandals seized upon Sicily; but it was soon wrested from them by Theodoric the Goth; and at his death, fell into the hands of the Eastern emperor. Totila afflicted Syracuse with a long but fruitless siege: yet it was not so well defended against the Saracens. These cruel enemies took it twice, and exercised the most savage barbarities on the wretched inhabitants. They kept possession of it two hundred years, and made an obstinate resistance against Earl Roger, in this fortress, which was one of the last of their possessions, that yielded to his victorious arms.
“It is truly melancholy,” says Mr. Brydone, “to think of the dismal contrast, that its former magnificence makes with its present meanness. The mightySyracuse, the most opulent and powerful of all the Grecian cities, which, by its own strength alone, was able at different times to contend against all the power of Carthage and of Rome, in which it is recorded to have repulsed fleets of 2000 sail, and armies of 200,000 men; and contained within its walls, what no other city ever did before or since, fleets and armies that were the terror of the world:—this haughty and magnificent city is reduced even below the consequence of the most insignificant borough.”
In its most flourishing state Syracuse, according to Strabo, extended twenty-two and a half English miles in circumference261, and was divided into four districts; each of which was, as it were, a separate city, fortified with three citadels, and three-fold walls.
Of the four cities262that composed this celebrated city, there remains only Ortygia, by much the smallest, situated in the island of that name. It is about two miles round. The ruins of the other three are computed at twenty-two miles in circumference. The walls of these are every where built with broken marbles, covered over with engravings and inscriptions; but most of them defaced and spoiled. The principal remains of antiquity are a theatre and amphitheatre, many sepulchres, the Latomie, the catacombs, and the famous Ear of Dionysius, which it was impossible to destroy. The Latomie now forms a noble subterraneous garden, and is, indeed, a very beautiful and romantic spot. The whole is hewn out of a rock as hard as marble, composed entirely of a concretion of gravel, shells, and other marine bodies;and many orange, bergamot, and fig trees, grow out of the hard rock, where there is no mark of any soil.
There are many remains of temples. The Duke of Montalbano, who has written on the antiquities of Syracuse, reckons nearly twenty; but few of these now are distinguishable. A few fine columns of that of Jupiter Olympius still remain; and the temple of Minerva (now converted into the cathedral of the city, and dedicated to the Virgin) is almost entire.
There are some remains, also, of Diana’s temple, near to the church of St. Paul; but they are not remarkable.
The palace of Dionysius, his tomb, the baths of Daphnis, and other ancient buildings, and all their statues and paintings263, have disappeared; but the Ear, of which history speaks so loud, still remains. It is no less a monument of the ingenuity and magnificence, than of the cruelty of the tyrant. It is a huge cavern, cut out of the hard rock, exactly in the form of the human ear. The perpendicular height of it is about eighty feet, and the length is no less than two hundred and fifty. The cavern was said to be so contrived, that every sound, made in it, was collected and united into one point as into a focus. This was called the tympanum; and exactly opposite to it the tyrant had made a hole, communicating with a little apartment, in which he used to conceal himself. He applied his own ear to this hole, and is said to have heard distinctly every word that was spoken in the cavern below. This apartment was no sooner finished, than he put todeath all the workmen that had been employed in it. He then confined all those that he suspected of being his enemies; and by hearing their conversation judged of their guilt, and condemned or acquitted accordingly.
The holes in the rock, to which the prisoners were chained, still remain, and even the lead and iron in several of the holes.
The cathedral264, now dedicated to Our Lady of the Pillar, was the temple of Minerva, on the summit of which her statue was fixed; holding a broad, refulgent shield. Every Syracusan, that sailed out of the port, was bound by his religion to carry honey, flowers, and ashes, which he threw into the sea, the instant he lost sight of the buckler. This was to ensure a safe return. The temple is built in the Doric proportions, used in the rest of Sicily. Its exterior dimensions are one hundred and eighty-five feet in length, and seventy-five in breadth.
The amphitheatre265is in the form of a very eccentric ellipse; but the theatre is so entire, that most of the seats still remain.
The great harbour ran into the heart of the city, and was called “Marmoreo,” because it was entirely encompassed with buildings of marble. Though the buildings are gone, the harbour exists in all its beauty. It is capable of receiving vessels of the greatest burden, and of containing a numerous fleet. Although at present this harbour is entirely neglected, it might easily be rendered a great naval and commercial station.
The catacombs are a great work; not inferior either to those of Rome or Naples, and in the same style.
There was also a prison, called Latomiæ, a word signifying a quarry. Cicero has particularly describedthis dreadful prison, which was a cave dug out of the solid rock, one hundred and twenty-five paces long, and twenty feet broad, and almost one hundred feet below the surface of the earth. Cicero, also, reproaches Verres with imprisoning Roman citizens in this place; which was the work of Dionysius, who caused those to be shut up in it, who had the misfortune to have incurred his displeasure. It is now a noble subterranean garden.
The fountain of Arethusa266also still exists. It was dedicated to Diana, who had a magnificent temple near its banks, where great festivals were annually celebrated in honour of that goddess. It is indeed an astonishing fountain, and rises at once out of the earth to the size of a river: and many of the people believe, even to this day, that it is the identical river, Arethusa, that was said to have sunk under ground near Olympia in Greece, and, continuing its course five hundred or six hundred miles below the ocean, rose again in this spot.267
Theglory of Thebes belongs to a period, prior to the commencement of authentic history. It is recorded only by the divine light of poetry and tradition, which might be suspected as fable, did not such mighty witnesses remain to attest the truth. A curious calculation, made from the rate of increase of deposition by the Nile, corroborated by other evidence, shows however that this city must have been founded four thousand seven hundred and sixty years ago, or two thousand nine hundred and thirty before Christ. There are the ruins of a temple, bearing an inscription, stating that it was founded by Osymandyas, who reigned, according to M. Champollion,two thousand two hundred and seventy years before Christ.
Thebes.THEBES.
THEBES.
Thebes was called, also, Diospolis, as having been sacred to Jupiter; and Hecatompylos, on account, it is supposed, of its having had a hundred gates.
“Not all proud Thebes’ unrivall’d walls contains,The world’s great empress, on the Egyptian plain;That spreads her conquests o’er a thousand states,And pours her heroes through a hundred gates—Two hundred horsemen, and two hundred cars,From each wide portal issuing to the wars.”Homer’s Iliad; Pope.
“Not all proud Thebes’ unrivall’d walls contains,The world’s great empress, on the Egyptian plain;That spreads her conquests o’er a thousand states,And pours her heroes through a hundred gates—Two hundred horsemen, and two hundred cars,From each wide portal issuing to the wars.”Homer’s Iliad; Pope.
“This epithet Hecatompylos, however,” says Mr. Wilkinson, “applied to it by Homer, has generally been supposed to refer to the hundred gates of its wall of circuit; but this difficulty is happily solved by an observation of Diodorus, that many suppose them ‘to have been the propylæa of the temples,’ and that this expression rather implies a plurality, than a definite number.”
Historians are unanimously agreed, that Menes was the first king of Egypt. It is pretended, and not without foundation, that he is the same with Misraim, the son of Cham. Cham was the second son of Noah. When the family of the latter, after the attempt of building the Tower of Babel, dispersed themselves into different countries; Cham retired to Africa, and it was, doubtless, he who afterwards was worshipped as a god, under the name of Jupiter Ammon. He had four children, Chus, Misraim, Phut, and Canaan. Chus settled in Ethiopia, Misraim in Egypt, which generally is called in Scripture after his name, and by that of Cham, his father. Phut took possession of that part of Africa which lies westward of Egypt; and Canaan, of the country which has since borne his name.
Misraim is agreed to be the same as Menes, whom all historians declare to be the first king of Egypt;the institutor of the worship of the gods, and of the ceremonies of the sacrifices.
Some ages after him, Busiris built the city of Thebes, and made it the seat of his empire. This prince is not to be confounded with the Busiris who, in so remarkable a manner, distinguished himself by his inordinate cruelties. In respect to Osymandyas, Diodorus gives a very particular account of many magnificent edifices raised by him; one of which was adorned with sculpture and paintings of great beauty, representing an expedition against the Bactrians, a people of Asia, whom he had invaded with four hundred thousand foot, and twenty thousand horse. In another part of the edifice was exhibited an assembly of the judges, whose president wore on his breast a picture of Truth, with her eyes shut, and himself surrounded with books; an emphatic emblem, denoting that judges ought to be perfectly versed in the laws, and impartial in the administration of them. The king, also, was painted there, offering to the gods silver and gold, which he drew from the mines of Egypt, amounting to the sum of sixteen millions.
So old as this king’s reign, the Egyptians divided the year into twelve months, each consisting of thirty days; to which they added, every year, five days and six hours. To quote the words of a well-known writer, (Professor Heeren,) “its monuments testify to us a time when it was the centre of the civilisation of the human race; a civilisation, it is true, which has not endured, but which, nevertheless, forms one of the steps by which mankind has attained to higher perfection.”
Although Thebes had greatly fallen from its former splendour, in the time of Cambyses the Persian it was the fury of this lawless and merciless conqueror that gave the last blow to its grandeur,about 520 years before the Christian era. He pillaged its temples, and carried away the ornaments of gold, silver, and ivory. Before this period, no city in the world could be compared with it in size, beauty, and wealth; and according to the expression of Diodorus—“The sun had never seen so magnificent a city.”
The next step towards the decline and fall of this city was, as we learn from Diodorus, the preference given to Memphis; and the removal of the seat of government thither, and subsequently to Sais and Alexandria, proved as disastrous to the welfare, as the Persian invasion had been to the splendour, of the capital of Upper Egypt. “Commercial wealth,” says Mr. Wilkinson, “on the accession of the Ptolemies, began to flow through other channels. Coptos and Apollinopolis succeeded to the lucrative trade of Arabia; and Ethiopia no longer contributed to the revenues of Thebes; and its subsequent destruction, after a three years’ siege, by Ptolemy Lathyrus, struck a death-blow to the welfare and existence of this capital, which was, thenceforth, scarcely deemed an Egyptian city. Some few repairs, however, were made to its dilapidated temples by Evergetes II., and some by the later Ptolemies. But it remained depopulated; and at the time of Strabo’s visit, was already divided into small and detached villages.”
Thebes was, perhaps, the most astonishing work ever performed by the hand of man. In the time of its splendour, it extended above twenty-three miles; and upon any emergency could send into the field seven hundred thousand men, according to Tacitus; but Homer allows only that it could pour through each of its hundred gates two hundred armed men, with their chariots and horses, which makes about forty thousand men, allowing two men to each chariot.
Though its walls were twenty-four feet in thickness, and its buildings the most solid and magnificent; yet, in the time of Strabo and of Juvenal, only mutilated columns, broken obelisks, and temples levelled with the dust, remained to mark its situation, and inform the traveller of the desolation which time, or the more cruel hand of tyranny, can assert over the proudest monuments of human art.
“Thebes,” says Strabo, “presents only remains of its former grandeur, dispersed over a space eighty stadia in length. Here are found great number of temples, in part destroyed by Cambyses; its inhabitants have retired to small towns, east of the Nile, where the present city is built, and to the western shore, near Memnonium; at which place we admired two colossal stone figures, standing on each side, the one entire, the other in part thrown down, it has been said by an earthquake. There is a popular opinion, that the remaining part of this statue, towards the base, utters a sound once a day. Curiosity leading me to examine this fact, I went thither with Ælius Gallus, who was accompanied with his numerous friends, and an escort of soldiers. I heard a sound about six o’clock in the morning, but dare not affirm whether it proceeded from the base, from the colossus, or had been produced by some person present; for one is rather inclined to suppose a thousand different causes, than that it should be the effect of a certain assemblage of stones.
“Beyond Memnonium are the tombs of the kings, hewn out of the rock. There are about forty, made after a marvellous manner, and worthy the attention of travellers. Near them are obelisks, bearing various inscriptions, descriptive of the wealth, power, and extensive empire of those sovereigns who reigned over Scythia, Bactriana, Judæa, and what is now called Ionia. They also recount the various tributes those kings had exacted, and the number of their troops, which amounted to a million of men.”
We now proceed to draw from Diodorus Siculus:—
“The great Diospolis,” says he, “which the Greeks have named Thebes, was six miles in circumference. Busiris, who founded it, adorned it with magnificent edifices and presents. The fame of its power and wealth, celebrated by Homer, has filled the world. Never was there a city which received so many offerings in silver, gold and ivory, colossal statues and[Pg 407]obelisks, each cut from a single stone. Four principal temples are especially admired there: the most ancient of which was surpassingly grand and sumptuous. It was thirteen stadia in circumference, and surrounded by walls twenty-four feet in thickness and forty-five cubits high. The richness and workmanship of its ornaments were correspondent to the majesty of the building, which many kings contributed to embellish. The temple still is standing; but it was stripped of its silver and gold, ivory, and precious stones, when Cambyses set fire to all the temples of Egypt.”
The following account of the tomb of Osymandyas is also from Diodorus:—
“Ten stadia from the tombs of the kings of Thebes, is the admirable one of Osymandyas. The entrance to it is by a vestibule of various coloured stones, two hundred feet long, and sixty-eight high. Leaving this we enter a square peristyle, each side of which is four hundred feet in length. Animals twenty-four feet high, cut from blocks of granite, serve as columns to support the ceiling, which is composed of marble slabs, twenty-seven feet square, and embellished throughout by golden stars glittering on a ground of azure. Beyond this peristyle is another entrance; and after that a vestibule, built like the first, but containing more sculptures of all kinds. At the entrance are three statues, formed from a single stone by Memnon Syncite, the principal of which, representing the king, is seated, and is the largest in Egypt. One of its feet, exactly measured, is about seven cubits. The other had figures supported on its knees; the one on the right, the other on the left, are those of his mother and daughter. The whole work is less valuable for its enormous grandeur, than for the beauty of the sculpture, and the choice of the granite, which, though so extensive, has neither flaw nor blemish on its surface. The colossus bears this inscription: ‘I am Osymandyas, king of kings; he who would comprehend my greatness, and where I rest, let him destroy some one of these works.’ Beside this, is another statue of his mother, cut from a single block of granite, thirty feet high. Three queens are sculptured on her head, intimating that she was a daughter, wife, and mother of a king. After this portico is a peristyle, still more beautiful than the first; on the stones of which is engraved, the history of the wars of Osymandyas, against the rebels of Bactriana. The façade of the front wall exhibits this prince attacking ramparts, at the foot of which the river flows. He is combating advanced troops; and by his side is a terrible lion, ardent in his defence. On the right wall are captives in[Pg 408]chains, with their hands and genitals cut off, as marks of reproach for their cowardice. The wall on the left contains symbolical figures of exceedingly good sculpture, descriptive of triumphs and sacrifice of Osymandyas returning from this war. In the centre of the peristyle, where the roof is open, an altar was erected of a single stone of marvellous bulk and exquisite workmanship; and at the farther wall are two colossal figures, each hewn from a single block of marble, forty feet high, seated on their pedestals. This admirable peristyle has three gates, one between the two statues, and the others on each side. These lead to an edifice two hundred feet square, the roof of which is supported by high columns; it resembles a magnificent theatre; several figures carved in wood, represent a tribunal administering justice. Thirty judges are seen on one of the walls; and in the midst of them the chief justice, with a pile of books at his feet, and a figure of Truth, with her eyes shut, suspended from his neck; beyond is a walk, surrounded by edifices of various forms, in which were tables stored with all kinds of delicious viands. In one of these, Osymandyas, clothed in magnificent robes, offers up the gold and silver which he annually drew from the mines of Egypt to the gods. Beneath, the amount of this revenue, which was thirty-two million minas of silver, was inscribed. Another building contained the sacred library, at the entrance of which these words were read: ‘Physic for the soul.’ A fourth contained all the deities of Egypt, with the king offering suitable presents to each; and calling Osiris and the surrounding divinities to witness, he had exercised piety towards the gods, and justice towards men. Beside the library stood one of the finest of these edifices, and in it twenty couches to recline on, while feasting; also the statues of Jupiter, Juno, and Osymandyas, whose body, it is supposed, was deposited here. Various adjoining apartments contained representations of all the consecrated animals of Egypt. Hence was the ascent to the sepulchre of the king; on the summit of which was placed a circle of gold, in thickness one cubit, and three hundred and sixty-five in circumference, each cubit corresponding to a day in the year; and on it was engraved the rising and setting of the stars for that day, with such astrological indications as the superstition of the Egyptians had affixed to them. Cambyses is said to have carried off this circle, when he ravaged Egypt. Such, according to historians, was the tomb of Osymandyas, which surpassed all others as well by its wealth, as by the workmanship of the skilful artists employed.”
In the whole of Upper Egypt, adjacent to each city, numerous tombs are always found excavatedin the neighbouring mountains. The most extensive and highly ornamented are nearest to the base; those of smaller dimensions, and less decorated, occupy the middle; and the most rude and simple are situated in the upper parts.
Those adjacent to Thebes are composed of extensive galleries, twelve feet broad and twenty high, with many lateral chambers.
They are ornamented with pilasters, sculptures, stucco, and paintings; both ceilings and walls are covered with emblems of war, agriculture, and music; and, in some instances, with shapes of very elegant utensils, and always representing offerings of bread, fruit, and liquors. The colours upon the ceilings are blue, and the figures yellow. We must, however, refer to a fuller account:—that of Belzoni.
“Gournouis a tract of rocks about two miles in length, at the foot of the Lybian mountains, on the west of Thebes, and was the burial-place of the great ‘city of the hundred gates.’ Every part of these rocks is cut out by art, in the form of large and small chambers, each of which has its separate entrance; and, though they are very close to each other, it is seldom that there is any communication from one to another. I can truly say, it is impossible to give any description sufficient to convey the smallest idea of these subterranean abodes and their inhabitants; there are no sepulchres in any part of the world like them; and no exact description can be given of their interior, owing to the difficulty of visiting these recesses. Of some of these tombs many persons cannot withstand the suffocating air, which often causes fainting. A vast quantity of dust rises, so fine, that it enters into the throat and nostrils, and chokes to such a degree, that it requires great power of lungs to resist it, and the strong effluvia of the mummies. This is not all; the entry, or passage where the bodies are, is roughly cut in the rocks, and the falling of the sand from the ceiling causes it to be nearly filled up:—so that in some places, there is not a vacancy of much more than a foot left, which must be passed in a creeping posture on the hands and knees. Alter getting through these passages, some of them two or three hundred yards long, you generally find a more commodious place, perhaps high enough to sit: but what a place of rest! Surrounded by bodies, by heaps of mummies in all directions,[Pg 410]which, till I got accustomed to the sight, impressed me with horror. After the exertion of entering into such a place through a passage of sometimes six hundred yards in length, nearly overcome, I sought a resting-place, found one, and contrived to sit; but when my weight bore on the body of an Egyptian, it crushed it like a band-box. I naturally had recourse to my hands to sustain my weight, but they found no better support; so that I sank altogether among the broken mummies with a crash of bones, rags, and wooden cases, which raised such a dust as kept me motionless for a quarter of an hour, waiting till it subsided again. Once I was conducted from such a place to another resembling it, through a passage about twenty feet in length, and no larger than that a body could be forced through; it was choked with mummies, and I could not pass without putting my face in contact with that of some decayed Egyptian; but, as the passage inclined downwards, my own weight helped me on, and I could not avoid being covered with bones, legs, arms, and heads; rolling from above. The purpose of my researches was to rob the Egyptians of their papyri, of which I found a few hidden in their breasts, under their arms, in the space above their knees, or on the legs, and covered by the numerous folds of cloth that envelop the body.
“Nothing can more plainly distinguish the various classes of people, than the manner of their preservation. In the many pits that I have opened, I never saw a single mummy standing, and found them lying regularly in horizontal rows, and some were sunk into a cement which must have been nearly fluid when the cases were placed on it. The lower classes were not buried in cases: they were dried up, as it appears, after the usual preparation. Mummies of this sort were in the proportion of about ten to one of the better class, as nearly as I could calculate from the quantity of both I have seen; the linen in which they are folded is of a coarser sort and less in quantity; they have no ornaments about them of any consequence, and are piled up in layers, so as to fill, in a rude manner, the caves excavated for the purpose. In general these tombs are to be found in the lower grounds, at the foot of the mountains; they are entered by a small aperture arched over, or by a shaft four or five feet square, at the bottom of which are entrances into various chambers, all choked up with mummies, many of which have been rummaged and left in the most confused state. Among these tombs we saw some which contained the mummies of animals intermixed with human bodies; these were bulls, cows, sheep, monkeys, foxes, bats, crocodiles, fishes, and birds. Idols often occur, and one tomb was filled with nothing but cats, carefully folded in red and white linen, the head covered by a mask made[Pg 411]of the same, and representing the cat. I have opened all these sorts of animals. Of the bull, the calf, and the sheep, there is no part but the head, which is covered with linen with the horns projecting out of the cloth; the rest of the body being represented by two pieces of wood eighteen inches wide and three feet long, with another at the end, two feet high, to form the breast. It is somewhat singular, that such animals are not to be met with in the tombs of the higher sort of people, while few or no papyri are to be found among the lower order; and if any occur, they are only small pieces stuck on the breast with a little gum or asphaltum, being probably all that the poor individual could afford to himself. In those of the better classes other objects are found. I think they ought to be divided into several classes, and not confined to three, as is done by Herodotus in his account of the mode of embalming. In the same pit where I found mummies in cases, I have found others without, and in these, papyri are most likely to be met with. I remarked that those in cases have none. It appears to me that those that could afford it had a case to be buried in, on which the history of their lives was painted; and those who could not afford a case, were contented to have their lives written on papyri, and placed above their knees. The cases are made of sycamore, some very plain, some richly painted with well-executed figures; all have a human face on the lid: some of the larger contain others within them, either of wood or plaster, and painted; some of the mummies have garlands of flowers and leaves of the acacia, or Sunt-tree, over their heads and breasts. In the inside of these mummies are often found lumps of asphaltum, sometimes weighing as much as two pounds. Another kind of mummy I believe I may conclude to have belonged exclusively to the priests: they are folded in a manner totally differing from the others, and with much more care; the bandages consist of stripes of red and white linen intermixed, and covering the whole body, but so carefully applied, that the form of the trunk and limbs are preserved separate, even to the fingers and toes; they have sandals of painted leather on the feet, and bracelets on their arms and wrists. The cases in which these mummies are preserved, are somewhat better executed than the rest.
“The tombs containing the better classes are of course superior to the others; some are also more extensive than others, having various apartments adorned with figures. It would be impossible to describe the numerous little articles found in them, which are well adapted to show the domestic habits of the ancient Egyptians. It is here the smaller idols are occasionally found, either lying on the ground, or on the cases. Vases made of baked clay, painted over, from eight to[Pg 412]eighteen inches in size, are sometimes seen, containing embalmed entrails; the covers represent the head of some divinity, bearing either the human form, or that of a monkey, fox, cat, or other animal. I met with a few of these made of alabaster, in the tombs of the kings, but they were unfortunately broken: a great quantity of pottery and wooden vessels are found in some of the tombs; the ornaments, the small works in clay in particular, are very curious. I have been fortunate enough to find many specimens of their manufactures, among which is leaf-gold, nearly as thin as ours; but what is singular, the only weapon I met with was an arrow, two feet long.
“One day while causing the walls of a large tomb to be struck with a sledge-hammer, in order to discover some hidden chambers, an aperture, a foot and a half wide, into another tomb, was suddenly made: having enlarged it sufficiently to pass, we entered, and found several mummies and a great quantity of broken cases; in an inner apartment was a square opening, into which we descended, and at the bottom we found a small chamber at each side of the shaft, in one of which was a granite sarcophagus with its cover, quite perfect, but so situated, that it would be an arduous undertaking to draw it out.”
Among the many discoveries of the enterprising Belzoni, was that of the Tombs of the Kings:—
“After a long survey of the western valley, I could observe only one spot that presented the appearance of a tomb: accordingly I set the men to work, and when they had got a little below the surface, they came to some large stones; having removed these, I perceived the rock had been cut on both sides, and found a passage leading downwards, and in a few hours came to a well-built wall of stones of various sizes, through which we contrived to make a breach; at last on entering, we found ourselves on a staircase, eight feet wide and ten high, at the bottom of which were four mummies in their cases, lying flat on the ground, and further on four more: the cases were all painted, and one had a large covering thrown over it like a pall. These I examined carefully, but no further discoveries were made at this place, which appears to have been intended for some of the royal blood.
“Not fifteen yards from the last tomb I described, I caused the earth to be opened at the foot of a steep hill, and under a torrent which, when it rains, pours a great quantity of water over the spot: on the evening of the second day, we perceived the part of the rock which was cut and formed the entrance, which was at length entirely cleared, and was found to be eighteen feet below the surface of the ground. In about[Pg 413]an hour there was room for me to enter through a passage that the earth had left under the ceiling of the first corridor, which is thirty-six feet long and eight or nine wide, and when cleared, six feet nine inches high. I perceived immediately, by the painting on the ceiling, and by the hieroglyphics in bas-relief, that this was the entrance into a large and magnificent tomb. At the end of the corridor, I came to a staircase twenty-three feet long, and of the same breadth as the corridor, with a door at the bottom, twelve feet high; this led to another corridor thirty-seven feet long, and of the same width and height as the former one, each side, and the ceiling sculptured with hieroglyphics and painted; but I was stopped from further progress by a large pit at the other end, thirty feet deep and twelve wide. The upper part of this was adorned with figures, from the wall of the passage up to the ceiling; the passages from the entrance, all the way to this pit, were inclined at an angle of about eighteen degrees. On the opposite side of the pit, facing the passage, a small opening was perceived, two feet wide, and two feet six inches high, and a quantity of rubbish at the bottom of the wall; a rope, fastened to a piece of wood that was laid across the passage, against the projections which form a kind of door, appears to have been used for descending into the pit, and from the small aperture on the other side hung another, for the purpose, doubtless, of ascending again; but these and the wood crumbled to dust on touching them, from the damp arising from the water which drained into the pit down the passages. On the following day we contrived a bridge of two beams to cross the pit by, and found the little aperture to be an opening forced through a wall, which had entirely closed the entrance, and which had been plastered over and painted, so as to give the appearance of the tomb having ended at the pit, and of there having been nothing beyond it. The rope in the inside of the wall, having been preserved from the damp, did not fall to pieces, and the wood to which it was attached was in good preservation. When we had passed through the little aperture, we found ourselves in a beautiful hall, twenty-seven feet six inches by twenty-five feet ten inches, in which were four pillars, three feet square. At the end of this room, which I shall call the entrance hall, and opposite the aperture, is a large door, from which three steps lead down into a chamber with two pillars, four feet square, the chamber being twenty-eight by twenty-five feet; the walls were covered with figures, which, though in outline only, were as fine and perfect as if drawn only the day before. On the left of the aperture a large staircase of eighteen steps, descended from the entrance-hall into a corridor,[Pg 414]thirty-six feet by seven wide; and we perceived that the paintings became more perfect as we advanced further; the figures are painted on a white ground, and highly varnished. At the end of this ten steps led us into another, seventeen feet by eleven, through which we entered a chamber, twenty feet by fourteen, adorned in the most splendid manner bybasso-relievos, painted like the rest. Standing in this chamber, the spectator sees himself surrounded by representations of the Egyptian gods and goddesses. Proceeding further, we entered another large hall, twenty-eight feet square, with two rows of pillars, three on each side, in a line with the walls of the corridors; at each side is a small chamber, each about ten or eleven feet square. At the end of this hall we found a large saloon, with an arched roof or ceiling, thirty-two feet by twenty-seven; on the right was a small chamber, roughly cut, and obviously left unfinished; and on the left there is another, twenty six by twenty-three feet, with two pillars in it. It had a projection of three feet all round it, possibly intended to contain the articles necessary for the funeral ceremonies; the whole was beautifully painted like the rest. At the same end of the room we entered by a large door into another chamber, forty-three feet by seventeen, with four pillars in it, one of which had fallen down; it was covered with white plaster where the rock did not cut smoothly, but there were no paintings in it. We found the carcass of a bull embalmed with asphaltum, and also, scattered in various places, an immense quantity of small wooden figures of mummies, six or eight inches long, and covered with asphaltum to preserve them; there were some others of fine baked earth, coloured blue, and highly varnished. On each side of the two little rooms were some wooden statues, standing erect, four feet high, with a circular hollow inside, as if to contain a roll of papyrus, which I have no doubt they once did. In the centre of the saloon was aSARCOPHAGUSof the finest oriental alabaster, nine feet five inches long, and three feet seven wide; it is only two inches thick, and consequently transparent when a light is held within it; it is minutely sculptured, both inside and out, with several hundred figures, not exceeding two inches in length, representing, as I suppose, the whole of the funeral procession and ceremonies relating to the deceased. The cover had been taken out, and we found it broken in several pieces in digging before the first entrance: this sarcophagus was over a staircase in the centre of the saloon, which communicated with a subterraneous passage, leading downwards, three hundred feet in length. At the end of this we found a great quantity of bats’ dung, which choked it up, so that we could go no further[Pg 415]without digging; it was also nearly filled up by the falling in of the upper part. One hundred feet from the entrance is a staircase, in good preservation, but the rock below changes its substance. This passage proceeds in a south-west direction through the mountain. I measured the distance from the entrance, and also the rocks above, and found that the passage reaches nearly half-way through the mountain to the upper part of the valley. I have reason to suppose that this passage was used as another entrance; but this could not be after the person was buried there; for, at the bottom of the stairs, under the sarcophagus, a wall had been built, which entirely closed this communication; hence it should appear, that this tomb had been opened again with violence, after all the precautions mentioned had been taken to conceal the existence of the greater part of it; and as these had been carefully and skilfully done, it is probable that the intruder must have had a guide who was acquainted with the place.”